First Squad - a World War 2 anime by Studio 4°C
 

http://img77.imageshack.us/img77/643/85493284wq9.jpg

http://www.first-squad.com/

Director: Yoshiharu Ashino (director of Tweeny Witches, animator of Princess Arete, Mindgame, et al)
Character design: Hirofumi Nakata (animator of Batman: Gotham Knight)
Story by: Mikhail Schpritz and Alexey Klimov
Music: DJ Krush
Format: feature film
Production: Studio 4°C and Molot Entertainment

Story: I'm not sure what the story actually is, but it takes place in 1942 during the Nazi invasion of Russia. Besides the military conflict there is also a mystical battle between German Ahnenerbe, an occult Nazi society, and and a special squad of the Soviet intelligence that is also involved in the occult. Naturally, there are school kids. With katanas. And Teutonic knights with tanks. And stuff.

It sounds a bit crazy and all over the place, but the looks are very authentic and, hell, it's Studio 4°C.

Not much else is known about the production, but there is a trailer and some images.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_90iFLjdqQ

There is also a music video about 3 years old, animated by Studio 4°C's Daisuke Nakayama, who was the original director. None of the old footage is present in the new film, though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUXnvhOmLkg

http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1...5a7yda5.th.jpg http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/7...ysf8yp8.th.jpg http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/4...h18hrq0.th.jpg http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1...p2w6rf1.th.jpg http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/9...kxaxjz3.th.jpg http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/8...zk1qrj7.th.jpg
http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/7...0x2tfp6.th.jpg http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/1...74zcrh9.th.jpg http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/4...kxr5ez8.th.jpg http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/9...pzt6ks0.th.jpg http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/3...q724nl8.th.jpg http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/2...6d9gru9.th.jpg

No idea when it comes out, but based on the recent activity with all these production news, I'd say late 2008 is a good guess.

Wow, the Trailer looks amazing!

This might actually look good :)

i was thinking:"..another world war anime" at first but this looks like it'll be worth watching.

Maybe I've missed something, but I don't see a whole lot of World War 2 anime out there, or hell, any anime about war NOT involving giant robots.

Anyway, yeah, I'll probably watch this.

I hope so, I've been following this for AGES, literally. :heh:

And yes, the trailer is fucking awesome.

The trailer is godlike, best one I've seen in a long time. :love:

There's a lot out there and a lot of them have to do with Nazi occultist, but this looks promosing.

This looks, and sounds like a complete mess. If it didn't have that Studio 4°C stamp tagged on there I would laugh this off. That trailer literally had every well known anime cliche packed into 30 secs of animation. Absolute mess to say the least.

Well at least it's a movie.

The trailer didn't really blow me but since this is by Studio 4°C, it might just pleasantly surprise me. At least I hope so.

Not that it'd affect me all that much but I'd prefer a realistic depiction of the war over magic and fantasy any day, so the inclusion of the "mystical battles" bits kinda makes me a tad exasperated.

Very interesting. I'll probably watch.

Plus the russian girl has a katana for some reason other then the animators thinking it looks "cool". Seriously why not have her have a gun instead?

http://img32.picoodle.com/data/img32...2m_fdd0ada.jpg

:rolleyes:

I assume this is shown from the Soviet side? Would have been more interesting if it was shown from the German side.

You want to see her rape jews? :heh: j/k
Not enough bullets to kill all the enemies perhaps.

Although the use of the katana is more or less coolness factor, or perhaps for the audience to identify with the character.
If anything she should be using something like court sword or rapier.

This makes me dream about an anime adaptation for Operation Darkness.

Exactly that's another thing would have been fine but instead they went with a japanese sword for a russian girl set in WW2...

The 360 game?...

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/2...tionhi7.th.jpg

I wouldn't mind a anime adaptation either. :D
I hope we have more then just the girl in the ranks of walking and developing characters.

At last, they made that music video ages ago [2-3 years].

So its a film, not TV series. Cool.

Well Russia did trade with Japan at one point. Who's to say they didn't give them swords?